Novotel opens a funky new hotel at Heathrow

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• Paul says:

  11 Apr11 April 04:01

  “After a stay at the Pullman London St Pancras last week which was so depressing that we can’t even bring ourselves to review it.”

  I’d love to read this. Surely it’s only fair to publish all reviews (good and bad)?

  • Adrian says:

    11 Apr11 April 04:59

    Yes. I too would like to know what you didn’t like, even if only as a brief comment rather than a full review.

    • Genghis says:

      11 Apr11 April 16:41

      @Rob it sounds like the situation of many on here. Travel for work (even in J and 5* hotels) isn’t sexy.

  • Bagoly says:

    11 Apr11 April 05:30

    +1

  • shd says:

    11 Apr11 April 05:41

    Yes, PLEASE publish! 🙂

  • Delbert says:

    11 Apr11 April 06:14

    That was the review as scathing as it was.

  • Mike says:

    11 Apr11 April 06:52

    +1

  • Rob says:

    11 Apr11 April 08:03

    We paid for the hotel because Anika needed it before her Eurostar trip. It wasn’t a proper review arranged by Accor and the possibility we might write about it was only a secondary reason for choosing it.

    I probably only write about a quarter of the hotels I stay in and pay for personally. I didn’t cover the Radisson Royal Viking in Stockholm for the same reason – despite our Radisson Rewards focus – but I do intend to write something on the Scandid Continental because that was good.

    • Genghis says:

      11 Apr11 April 08:05

      All the more reason to write about it? There was no “the HfP team are here so let’s show them a good time” premise to the stay.

      • Rob says:

        11 Apr11 April 08:10

        Our editorial view, unless a hotel is comically bad, is that we only write about good / new places which you might want to visit. Using an article just to tell you that somewhere isn’t worth visiting is less useful UNLESS it is a very tight market. I slated the NH at Vienna Airport last year, for eg, but that story was a) vaguely amusing and b) there are only 2 airport hotels to pick from so slating one serves a purpose.

      • JamesB says:

        11 Apr11 April 10:59

        Not to mention that it has been extensively reviewed elsewhere for those who are interested. Personally I have never been convinced about hotel reviews on HFP so fortunately the current editorial policy keeps them to a minimum.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      11 Apr11 April 08:07

      But surely that ensures a more balanced and potentially representative experience versus something arranged via Accor.

      I understand why you dont publish all the hotels you visit because that’s not the primary focus of the site. But if you are going to tease us……

      • Rob says:

        11 Apr11 April 08:12

        As I have said before, unofficial stays are LESS representative because we do not see a variety of room types and, as we are tight, are less likely to use the restaurant or pay for breakfast!

• Robert says:

  11 Apr11 April 05:12

  I’m intrested too. From the website at least, the Pullman looks pretty nice, and it has an almost 5/5 rating on TripAdvisor.

  • Tom C says:

    11 Apr11 April 06:10

    Thank god the completely non-biased, authentic TripAdvisor likes it – we must all go.

    https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/434gqw/i-made-my-shed-the-top-rated-restaurant-on-tripadvisor

    • callum says:

      11 Apr11 April 10:51

      The fact that the ratings can be gamed doesn’t make it worthless. There’s a reason why millions of people continue to use it regularly – it gives an incredibly useful and reasonably reliable general impression of these places.

      • JamesB says:

        11 Apr11 April 11:03

        Agreed, my views of most hotels I have stayed at are pretty consistent with the general impressions on TA if the extremes either end are ignored.

      • Genghis says:

        11 Apr11 April 11:06

        I find TA a useful resource and regularly write reviews. It’s interesting though how my overall opinion (and therefore star rating) on a place can occasionally differ significantly from what the general consensus is: for the worse or the better. I guess we all value different things.

      • Tetly1967 says:

        11 Apr11 April 11:32

        Agreed – try to review as many hotels as I can (whether business or leisure) and try to be as honest as possible – it isn’t perfect but it has a very important (and powerful) role to play for business and non-business travel

      • JamesB says:

        11 Apr11 April 11:48

        @Genghis, I think the relative weight different people afford to same factors throws up the discrepancies. For example, IIRC the staffing levels at DT Kuala Lumpur featured quite heavily for you and I think that would be quite unusual for most guests. Discrepancies also arise because some guests will review a hotel in absolute terms whilst others will review them relative to what they expected of the brand or money they paid. Hence, for some, Travelodge will never merit more than two stars under any circumstances while others will rate them 5 if they think they are very good Travelodges.

• Ciaran McNulty says:

  11 Apr11 April 06:16

  Why does the Novotel have T1 in the name, when that’s gone the way of the dodo?

  • Adrian says:

    11 Apr11 April 09:46

    Guessing – they may be following the name of the nearby London Underground station, which still has T1 in it. Using the same name may help unfamiliar visitors.

    • Lumma says:

      11 Apr11 April 12:26

      The tube map just calls it terminals 2&3 these days, although the trains themselves still say 1, 2 & 3

  • Mark F says:

    11 Apr11 April 12:30

    Just you wait ’til I reassemble T1 in my back garden, complete with limited edition T1 paperweight and a glass wall of water sculpture.

• John says:

  11 Apr11 April 06:51

  I think Amex will have a better rate for someone sending £2m regularly versus someone sending £5k one off.

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    11 Apr11 April 06:57

    But it still might be a better rate than sending £5k via another provider.

    • Chris says:

      11 Apr11 April 07:26

      More expensive than UKForex

• Alan says:

  11 Apr11 April 07:27

  Interesting re Pullman – quite a few colleagues have stayed there in recent years and they were always pretty positive about it.

• IslandDweller says:

  11 Apr11 April 07:53

  Please do publish the Pullman review. One of my worst ever hotel experiences was the Pullman Versailles, shockingly indifferent management.

  • Rob says:

    11 Apr11 April 07:56

    Some bad reviews can be funny or at least informative. From what Anika tells me, this one would just be depressingly dull and uninspiring!

    • John says:

      11 Apr11 April 11:37

      wrong type of shampoo again?

      Views are subjective. Some people are picky. Some couldn’t care less other than to get a good nights sleep.

• Genghis says:

  11 Apr11 April 08:01

  10% off at Co op too though not on Paypoint transactions 🙂

  • Lady London says:

    12 Apr12 April 00:53

    5 now, I think

  • Andrew says:

    12 Apr12 April 09:49

    Co-op schemes are complex enough anyway.

    I’ve had the odd spending deal (£10 back on £50 etc) through Halifax/BoS. If I buy at my closest Co-op, the deal doesn’t trigger as it’s operated by Mid-Counties Cooperative based in Warwick – but if I go another 200 metres along the road to the next Co-op which is operated by Cooperative Group based in Manchester, it does. The branding outside the stores is identical.

    Evening classes are often a good way of getting a student badge, ID or email address too (and a good source of CPD hours if appropriate).

• Peter says:

  11 Apr11 April 08:17

  You need to stay at the NH Stansted for an experience …..

  • David says:

    11 Apr11 April 09:06

    Or the NH Schiller in Amsterdam, which I checked out of yesterday…

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.